YACT

[spp]

I've been communicating with equifax because they messed up my SSN and a couple of entries in my credit report. It's all taken care of now after 3 month of back and forth, but I am just wondering if I should be worried about the other 2 bureau.

Would fixing the record with equifax fix errors with the other 2 bureau automatically? Am I entitled to a free credit report from each of the 3 bureau every year (since I already got it from equifax)?


I also have a seperate question that I will research on but would like to get opinion from you guys. Would closing a high credit line credit card that I don't use anymore hurt my credit score?


Thanks in advance.

 

[spp]

To answer my question, this is what I got from here

"Can closing old accounts help my score? That's the most common misconception about credit scores. Closing old accounts can actually hurt your score because it raises your utilization ratio. Owing $5,000 looks a lot better when you have a $20,000 maximum on all of your credit cards -- a utilization ratio of 25% -- than it does when you have a limit of $7,000 -- a ratio of more than 70%.

Even though your credit score will dip temporarily, it's okay to close accounts as long as you don't plan to apply for a loan within the next few months. That will give your score time to recover. Close department- store accounts and new cards first. "

 

[QED]

The 3 bureaus are totally seperate and do not share information-- so any correction you made to your Equifax report will likely have to be repeated for the other two bureaus (assuming they got incorrect information as well).

 

[IntrinsicValue]

Originally posted by: spp
To answer my question, this is what I got from here

"Can closing old accounts help my score? That's the most common misconception about credit scores. Closing old accounts can actually hurt your score because it raises your utilization ratio. Owing $5,000 looks a lot better when you have a $20,000 maximum on all of your credit cards -- a utilization ratio of 25% -- than it does when you have a limit of $7,000 -- a ratio of more than 70%.

Even though your credit score will dip temporarily, it's okay to close accounts as long as you don't plan to apply for a loan within the next few months. That will give your score time to recover. Close department- store accounts and new cards first. "

Right, it's a common misconception that closing your accounts will raise your credit score. A credit score takes many factors into consideration. But to summarize, a creditor wants to see that you have some debt but not utilizing too much of your maximum credit (utilization ratio, as you already mentioned), and that the amount of debt is not too high compared to your income (also called debt-to-income ratio), and that you pay your debts on time. There are other factors as well, but those are three primary driving forces of credit ratings.